A place where a Director of Instructional Technology and Innovation transparently shares her successes, failures, fears, and desires in the realm of K-12 educational technology
@juliedavisEDU

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

InstaGrok Research Tool for Students

Last night I took part in twitter chat #TnTechChat that I cohosted with the amazing Julie King (@libtechJules). Our topic for the evening was "Student Research: Curating Information from the Internet." Quite honestly it was a very basic conversation with some important things being discussed but when it was over I was left with the overwhelming thought that most people are muddling through this but we feel overwhelmed with the responsibility of helping digital natives become digital learners. I don't blame anyone, it's an overwhelming task. I see this topic being a springboard for many more thought provoking chats...but I digress.

I want to share with you a tweet that stuck with me from last night:

INSTAGROK! (www.instagrok.com) As soon as Julie shared this I was like YES! At one point it was a standard go-to for me but for whatever reason it fell out of my toolbox. LibTechJulie is right though, it's an amazing tool...even for fun. Here are the top reasons it could be useful in your classroom:

It's visual. Students input keywords and boom...

Students can see a visual graphic organizer of ideas associated with their search and they then have the ability to make choices by clicking on the media options to decide the path of learning they want to make. Choice!

It can be personalized...

Students can do a search and follow through with information and then pin it for research papers where it can actually be cited for them in their Instagrok journal. It is interactive and academic. Student research can easily be shared with others!

It's easy. Students can use their google accounts to access it. The free version meets needs. It's nonlinear learning. It's cross platform and app based as well!

And definitely worth taking another look at and sharing with your students! Watch this video and dig in! Thanks for the reminder Julie King!